WP7 App will help success of Seattle’s go520 Ridesharing Pilot

Avego Driver has broken new ground yet again by becoming the first real-time ridesharing application available on Windows Phone 7, as well as the first real-time ridesharing app compatible across multiple mobile platforms. While Avego Driver for iPhone has been available since 2008, with thousands of users in over 60 countries around the world, the new app on Windows Phone 7 uses a new style of interface that will be easier to deploy and use on more mobile devices.

The app was built specifically to support the Seattle-area’s go520 real-time ridesharing project. Crucial to the success of go520 is the involvement of Microsoft’s 89,000 employees, all of whom were given a Windows Phone 7 mobile, many of whom commute along the heavily-congested SR 520 corridor. Hundreds of Microsoft staffers have already signed up to use the new app to share rides between Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, and downtown Seattle.

go520 allows 250 drivers with GPS-enabled smartphones to offer the empty seats in their vehicles to 750 riders along the SR 520 highway, in real time, as they travel. Avego pairs passengers and drivers through an easy-to-use system using Windows Phone 7 and other mobile devices. Avego automatically distributes the cost of the commute among the riders, providing a key financial incentive to commuters frustrated by high gasoline prices.

The new Windows Phone 7 app takes advantage of the panoramic layout of the Windows interface. For example, users can quickly swipe left and right to view trip details and a map view of their route, without having to load a new screen.

Sean O’Sullivan, Managing Director of Avego, said, “Clearly, smartphones are not dominated by a single vendor any more, and that means that real-time ridesharing needs to support all the major platforms to be viable and to maximize the odds that people will be able to share their wasted seat capacity.  We don’t support every major platform yet, but we’re delighted to add WP7 to the mix.”

The app is now available for free download from the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.

Latest release introducing great enhancements for drivers and riders

Since the release of Avego Driver 2.1 last November, the Avego product team has been busy working on the next major update to Avego’s real-time ridematching application. Version 2.2 is now available for download, and includes several new features that help make real-time ridesharing easier than ever before.

The new Affiliations feature allows riders and drivers to be matched only within the same group—whether that group is coworkers at a company, or students from the same university.

You can now pick up passengers on the countdown screen. This is helpful for drivers commuting from busy campus locations, where you’re more likely to pick up passengers at the departure point.

You can now refine your route with “via” points in the iPhone app, simply by tapping on a pin and moving it. Previously, defining a route using via points was only available by logging into the Avego website.

We’ve added a ghost icon on the Enter PIN screen, which will automatically enter the “7777” PIN when picking-up ghost riders.

The microblog on the home screen now lets you scroll through more recent activity

The update also features higher reliability, and includes several dozen bug fixes.

Click here to download the Avego Driver 2.2 iPhone app now.

To ease congestion between Carrigaline and leading Irish University

For many students, faculty and employees of University College, Cork, the commute to and from campus from the nearby suburb of Carrigaline gets a failing grade.

According to the Central Statistics Office of Ireland, Carrigaline has the highest proportion of workers commuting to work by car in Ireland (74%), and is also one of Ireland’s most congested routes. Despite being only a little over 12 kilometres, the UCC to Carrigaline route can take up to one hour at peak times. With no direct public transportation options available, many commuters end up driving alone.

Avego recently launched a three month real-time ridesharing pilot program to help members of the UCC community who commute to campus from Carrigaline.

Building on previous driver pilots with UCC in 2009 and 2010, which focused on usability testing and understanding consumer attitudes towards ridesharing, this new pilot will attempt to build a “critical mass” of 30 drivers and 100 riders along the busy UCC to Carrigaline route.

UCC’s Commuter Plan Manager Stephan Koch said, “Through our Commuter Plan we have been offering and promoting transport alternatives such as park and ride, carpooling etc. over the last eight years. We are enthusiastic about participating in an Avego pilot in UCC, which will add another dimension to our Commuter Plan and supplement the existing commuter options for our students and staff.”

To find out more, click here.

Shuttle and Shared Transport dramatically reduced need for SOV cars at transport conference

For the first time at an international conference, Shared Transport services were made available to conference attendees at this year’s Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT) Conference here, thanks to an innovative complimentary shuttle and shared transport service powered by VPSI and Avego.

The conference, which took place from August 29-September 1 in Indian Wells, California, brought together transportation demand management (TDM) professionals from around the world. This year, the conference helped reduce single occupancy vehicle usage and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by offering attendees airport pickups and drop-offs, as well as a nightly “shared transport” shuttle service to the many attractions the Indian Wells, Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage areas have to offer.

Over the course of the event, attendees took 27, 97 and 187 Shared Transport trips on the three successive nights of the conference, showing a remarkable daily growth and usage rate. Over the entire conference, VPSI/Avego delivered over 529 trips for the 270 attendees, and a remarkable 43% modal shift in airport journeys alone.

“Normally, trade shows and conferences in locations not extensively serviced by public transit result in attendees using ‘single occupancy vehicles’ (SOVs) like rental cars to get around,” said Sean O’Sullivan, Avego Managing Director. “As ACT is an association of professionals dedicated to reducing wasteful travel usage, we thought it important to provide travel options that improve transport efficiency, reduce costs, VMT, and improve the quality of the travel experience.”

Avego teamed up with VPSI to offer shuttle services to all attendees, featuring, for the first time, “on demand” shuttle services, with an iPhone application that not only showed attendees real-time information on what transport services were available, but also allowed attendees to request rides dynamically for increased efficiency. While other trade shows and conferences in the past have offered shuttle services, this was the first conference ever to have its own iPhone app showing real-time passenger information services, among other firsts.

ACT’s Executive Director, Caryn Souza, commented, “ACT is constantly looking for ways to foster innovation in transportation. VPSI and Avego have combined their assets and technology to create a convenient, easy-to-use nightly shuttle service that our conference attendees greatly enjoyed.”

The shuttle service was powered by VPSI vans and a custom implementation of Avego’s Shared Transport and Futurefleet technologies. The free shuttle service allowed passengers to book a ride with the ACT2010 iPhone app, or with any cell phone. iPhone users simply downloaded the app from the iTunes store, selected a destination along the shuttle route, and tapped “Pick me up.” Cell phone users would text a code with their stop number to 41411. Once a ride was booked, passengers received real-time status updates via SMS leading up to their pick-up.

VPSI Vice President–Product Integration Ken Sieloff added, “Vanpools are an incredibly efficient, safe, economical and enjoyable way to travel. We’re delighted to have provided this complimentary shuttle service to ACT 2010 conference attendees.”